THE BEST CHILD PROOF CABINET LOCKS

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Tell me if this sounds familiar: You leave the room for two minutes to go pee by yourself, and when you come back, some small, adorable child has turned your kitchen Tupperware cabinet into their own personal play space. (read more)

I can't even remember the number of times I had to pile everything back into the Tupperware cabinet, and that was on a good day! 

On a bad day it was orange juice, a mostly full bottle of white wine, a gallon of milk, a full bag of corn starch, mayonnaise, and a busted open can of Pillsbury croissants. 

Thankfully that didn't happen all at once. However, on the other side of that, I had to clean up ALL those messes one at a time. 

Why it took me that long to find a good cabinet lock, I do not know. Call it "new parent hope". Like I really thought that if I was patient enough, calm enough, and explained to my 18 month old why it wasn't good for him to do this stuff, he'd listen.

Oh, silly, silly me.

The moment child number two started to crawl, I got child locks! 

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Before I got the locks I love, though, I got the locks I thought would work really good. They were expensive, they had to be installed, they put holes in all of my cabinets, and while they sort of worked, they didn't work well enough.

They were this sort of lock.

I'm not saying they were bad locks, not at all. Maybe we didn't install them correctly, maybe our kids were more dedicated than most. Either way, a couple of good yanks by my then two year old, and that cabinet was open, no problem.

​What ended up happening was that I had to uninstall the locks, leaving holes (most of which were gaping because of the yanking that had been done), or I just disabled the locks and left them stuck in the cabinet doors (because I'm lazy). 

Don't even get me started on the time the kids lost the magnetic key. Suffice to say there wasn't a magnet in the WHOLE house strong enough to open those locks.

Oh and I accidentally set one near my watch once and it screwed up the mechanism. 

It's a strong magnet.

The idea is pretty much that the lock goes on the inside, you touch the magnet to it on the outside, the door opens, like so:

Yeah, I haven't used the lock in five years, but like I said, lazy. Also, the magnet is really strong, it's a great fridge magnet. No way I'm throwing that thing out.

After realizing these locks were no match for my kids, I decided on a different route. 

It worked way better.

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THE BEST CHILD PROOF
​CABINET LOCKS

Munchkin Xtraguard Dual Action Multi Use Latches

• Secures cabinets, drawers, appliances, toilet seats, and more
• Requires dual button operation to release, release and rotate when not in use
• Flexible strap allows latching around corners
• Easy to install with provided adhesive - won't damage furniture and is easy to remove
• Features a double layer of security providing tamper resilience and double locking protection

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Now that you have the specs, let me tell you how they work.

Pick your cabinet, place one sticker on the part that doesn't move (your anchor). Place the other sticker on the door itself. You must have two areas to connect the stickers, this is important. If you've got a corner door or a stand alone cabinet that has nothing to anchor the lock, don't use this one, it won't work and you'll be frustrated.

​You do NOT need another cabinet to anchor to. You only need a surface that will allow the attachment of the adhesive. This can be another part of the appliance, a wall, the counter top, etc.

But, 99% of the cabinets in my house can use this lock without issue, so I'm hoping that'll be the case for you as well. 

Once you pick your sticker points, just stick them on. Here's my "snack cabinet":

This is the sister cabinet on the other side of the fridge. Both of these cabinets slide out instead of opening like a traditional cabinet, but you could just as easily use the locks on a door that opens on hinges.

When not in use, the lock simply rotates on the ancho and hangs there, waiting for you to latch it back in place.

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I also used them on my fridge and my stove. My fridge is a side by side, so I put the locks on the top of the fridge from the top of the base to the top of the door. The stove was easy as well. As long as you've got enough room to anchor to a non moving part, you can lock it up tight.

When you need to get into the cabinet, just give the two buttons a pinch, and presto, open sesame.

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They go on in just a few minutes, and my kids could not successfully operate these until they were around seven years old, well past the point when they actually understood that their actions had consequences they didn't like. 

Also well past the point of them wanting to dump out my cupboards.

You could also use them in the bathroom. If you have kids that like to use the toilet as their own personal lake, these would keep that lid shut and secure.

When you're done using the locks (for good), you can just pop the adhesive off the surfaces. I haven't done this myself, so definitely check the directions, but according to the reviews I've read, you just need to stick a butter knife underneath the sticker (if it's on stainless steel) and pop it off. 

If you're removing from a cabinet or a wall, I would recommend using a hair dryer to get the sticker warm before pulling up on the sticker. You don't want to remove paint or cabinet overlay.

Remember though, once you remove it, that's it, you cannot reuse it.

I definitely need to remove mine, but sometimes I have very small kids over and I like the idea of being able to lock things up, especially the oven and the fridge. 

You can always take the lock off (like you see on my stove) and leave the stickers so you can use it later on if you need to. Toss the locks in your junk drawer and pull them out when your grandkids come over.

I hope this helps keep your Tupperware a little safer from tiny, inquisitive hands.

​Ty

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